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climate change

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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climate change (usually uncountable, plural climate changes)

  1. Natural large-scale and long-term change in the Earth's climatic system, as brought about by ice ages.
  2. Rapid, large-scale, and long-term change in the Earth's climatic system produced by global warming; anthropogenic climate change.
    • 2013 September-October, Michael Sivak, “Will AC Put a Chill on the Global Energy Supply?”, in American Scientist:
      Nevertheless, it is clear that the global energy demand for air-conditioning will grow substantially as nations become more affluent, with the consequences of climate change potentially accelerating the demand.
    • 2015 June 18, Jim Yardley, Laurie Goodstein, quoting Pope Francis, “Pope Francis, in Sweeping Encyclical, Calls for Swift Action on Climate Change”, in The New York Times‎[4], →ISSN:
      “Climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods,” he writes. “It represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day.”
    • 2017 May 25, Mark Zuckerberg, “Mark Zuckerberg’s Commencement address at Harvard”, in The Harvard Gazette‎[5]:
      It’s time for our generation-defining public works. How about stopping climate change before we destroy the planet and getting millions of people involved manufacturing and installing solar panels?
    • 2019 October, Roger Ford, “WCP award - victory for DfT reactionaries”, in Modern Railways, page 31:
      If you are serious about climate change a rolling programme of electrification is the only rational policy.
    • 2023 December 27, Richard Foster, “Building a greener future”, in RAIL, number 999, page 34:
      Both the UK and Europe have experienced record summer temperatures in the past couple of years, which have brought home the fact that climate change is happening.
    • 2025 October 11, Simon Kuper, “A utopian future is still, just about, possible”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 20:
      In short, mainstream parties no longer offer an element that every successful political project requires: a promise of a better world. But nativists still offer it. They solve the problem of climate change by pretending it doesn't exist.

Usage notes

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  • May be treated (in the sense “anthropogenic climate change”) as a synonym of global warming in informal contexts, particularly in regions where climate science is contested by political actors.[1] This conflation is not widespread in scientific contexts, where it may be regarded as incorrect.[2]
  • Some newspapers and journalists now prefer the terms climate crisis, climate emergency, or climate breakdown.[3]

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ Jennifer 8. Lee quoting Frank Luntz (2 March 2003), “A Call for Softer, Greener Language”, in The New York Times‎[1], →ISSN: “In his memorandum, Mr. Luntz urges that the term “climate change” be used instead of “global warming,” because while global warming has catastrophic communications attached to it, climate change sounds a more controllable and less emotional challenge.”
  2. ^ Erik Conway (5 December 2008), “What's in a Name? Global Warming vs. Climate Change”, in NASA‎[2], archived from the original on 14 November 2019
  3. ^ Damian Carrington (17 May 2019), “Why the Guardian is changing the language it uses about the environment”, in The Guardian‎[3]

Further reading

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Anagrams

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